Topology determination, decomposable shape generation, and structured mesh generation

ABSTRACT

Enables efficient correction of topological consistency of an input three-dimensional shape approximated in a spatial graph. Structured mesh generation systems of the present invention include: a topology determination apparatus for reading shape data from a shape data storage device to determine topological consistency and outputting data for solving a problem about topological consistency; a decomposable shape generation apparatus for reading the data outputted by the topology determination apparatus, changing a constraint condition of an integer programming problem solver to execute a shape correction process and outputting corrected shape data; and a structured mesh generation apparatus for reading the corrected shape data to generate a structured mesh.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to shape generation and shape recognitionby a computer. It is more particularly related to topology determinationdecomposable shape generation, and structured mesh generation to enableefficient correction of topological consistency of an inputthree-dimensional shape approximated into a spatial graph.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

There is known an approach of generating an intermediate shape called arecognition model as an approach for generating a mesh for a giventwo-dimensional or three-dimensional shape. This method of creating amesh via an intermediate shape is frequently used in various fieldsincluding mesh generation for analysis in a finite element method andsurface rendering. In the case of a three-dimensional shape, arecognition model can be defined as a solid composed of only facesparallel to a coordinate plane and formed with multiple solids havingvertexes with integer coordinate values, which are heaped so that aninput three-dimensional model is imitated. Once this recognition modelcan be generated, it is possible, by decomposing the recognition modelinto unit polyhedrons in an integer space, to generate hexahedron unitelements, for example. By assigning the hexahedron unit elements insidean input model, a hexahedral mesh can be generated. FIG. 17 shows arecognition model (b) and a structured mesh (c) generated from apredetermined input three-dimensional shape (a) with a prior-art method.

The following is a listing of prior art document considered herein:

-   -   [1] Japanese Patent Application No. 2002-178068 by Yamada,        Yoshizawa, Inoue and Doi.    -   [2] “Recognition Model Construction Approach without Self        Interference for Generation of Hexahedral Mesh” by Yamada,        Yoshizawa, Inoue and Doi; Collected Lecture Draft Papers for        2002 Annual Meeting of The Japan Society for Industrial and        Applied Mathematics; September, 2002.    -   [3] “Development of Automatic Three-Dimensional Element        Decomposition System Using Shape Recognition” by Hiroaki        Takahashi et al.; Collected Papers of The Japan Society of        Mechanical Engineers (Book A) 59(569); pp.279-285, 1993.    -   [4] “Automatic Block Decomposition Using Fuzzy Logic Analysis”        by Reza Taghavi, 9th International Meshing Roundtable,        pp.187-192, 2000.

In prior-art methods [1] and [2] for providing the structured mesh shownin FIG. 17, calculation is performed by solving an integer programmingproblem using an integer programming problem solver, using the imitationlevel of an input shape as an objective function and a condition causingno intersection as a constraint condition. In the prior-art methods, theconstraint condition is dynamically changed by finding any violationposition (intersection position) in iterative calculation andsuccessively adding a constraint condition for resolving the violation.This process is repeated, and when all the violations of the constraintcondition have been resolved, the iterative calculation ends and arecognition model without a violation is generated. In this case, therecognition model without an intersection is necessarily a decomposableshape. Accordingly, a mesh can be generated without a fail for arecognition model generated with the prior-art approaches.

It is a necessary condition for a non-decomposable shape to have anintersection of edges or faces, but having an intersection is not asufficient condition for being a non-decomposable shape. Inconsideration of this point, the prior-art methods [1] and [2] provide aconstraint of excluding intersections even when a recognition model isof a decomposable shape, and this may cause a problem that a generatedmesh is deformed too much. Furthermore, the above-mentioned strictconstraint condition is applied to all the calculations, and this maycause an inconvenience that predictability for output results to begenerated by calculation required for outputting a suitable andallowable recognition model is reduced.

That is, if a recognition model is determined to be of anon-decomposable shape only because it has any intersection, it is a toostrict condition for generation of a recognition model that is alwaysdecomposable. Among actual multidimensional shapes, there are shapes inwhich there is an intersection but it is allowable.

In addition to the methods described above, the documents [3] and [4]also disclose a method for generating a structured mesh via arecognition model of an input three-dimensional shape. However, theprior-art methods in the documents [3] and [4] below are not sufficientfrom the viewpoint of secure generation of a decomposable recognitionmodel.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Therefore, in a first aspect of the present invention, there is provideda topology determination apparatus for executing a “non-decomposableposition identifying process” for a shape including a topologicalconsistency problem as input to output data of causal intersectionpositions, in a first configuration of the present invention. Thetopology determination apparatus further detects intersection positionscausing non-decomposability (hereinafter referred to as “causalintersection positions” in the present invention) to identify theintersection positions as intersection pairs generating the causalintersection positions. The data of the causal intersection pairs isoutput data.

In a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a“decomposable shape generation apparatus” for using the shape generatedby a shape correction operation and the data of causal intersectionpairs as input data to generate corrected shape data in which a causalintersection has been selectively eliminated and updating the shape databefore the processing with the corrected shape data. The decomposableshape generation apparatus refers to a causal intersection list todynamically change a constraint condition for a causal intersectionposition that causes non-decomposability. After that, the decomposableshape generation apparatus moves a shape element in the vicinity of thecausal intersection position being processed until the causalintersection position is completely eliminated, and outputs correctedshape data corresponding to a decomposable shape.

In a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided a“structured mesh generation apparatus” for generating a structured meshdecomposed into polyhedron unit elements with the corrected shape dataas input. The structured mesh generation apparatus of the presentinvention generates a mesh with unit elements for a recognition modelprovided by the corrected shape data and outputs structured mesh data.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

These, and further, aspects, advantages, and features of the inventionwill be more apparent from the following detailed description of apreferred embodiment and the appended drawings wherein:

FIG. 1 is a flowchart showing a schematic process of a topologydetermination method to be executed in a topology determinationapparatus of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a detailed flowchart of the non-decomposable positionidentifying process of the present invention shown at step S12;

FIG. 3 shows an embodiment of the edge E₀ and the edge E₁;

FIG. 4 graphically shows an embodiment of the determination performed atstep S26;

FIG. 5 shows another embodiment wherein a causal intersection pair isprovided according to the present invention;

FIG. 6 graphically shows a causal intersection position identifyingprocess of the present invention as is applied to an actual shape;

FIG. 7 shows an embodiment wherein a topology determination method ofthe present invention is applied to a three-dimensional shape;

FIG. 8 shows intersection patterns of intersection between faces;

FIG. 9 shows a schematic flowchart of a process executed by adecomposable shape generation apparatus of the present invention;

FIG. 10 shows an example of label reversal in the present invention,with the use of an actual shape;

FIG. 11 describes a shape correction process of the present invention indetail;

FIG. 12 shows an embodiment of a decomposable shape generated from anon-decomposable shape by a decomposable shape generation process of thepresent invention;

FIG. 13 shows a schematic flowchart of a structured mesh generationprocess of the present invention;

FIG. 14 shows an embodiment of a structured mesh generated with theadvancing front method in accordance with the present invention;

FIG. 15 is a functional block diagram of a structured mesh generationsystem of the present invention;

FIG. 16 shows various device functions configured by the computer 12 ofthe present invention, together with other device functions;

FIG. 17 shows a recognition model (b) and a structured mesh (c)generated from a predetermined input three-dimensional shape (a) with aprior-art method;

FIG. 18 shows how an edge changes due to an operation for generating arecognition model of an input shape; and

FIG. 19 geometrically shows an operation referred to as a “shapecorrection operation” in accordance with the present invention.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS

-   10 . . . Shape data storage section-   12 . . . Computer-   14 . . . Display device-   16 . . . CPU-   18 . . . Memory-   20 . . . Input/output control section-   22 . . . Internal bus-   24 . . . Network interface controller-   26 . . . Network-   28 . . . Storage device-   30 . . . Input device-   32 . . . Topology determination apparatus-   34 . . . Decomposable shape generation apparatus-   36 . . . Structured mesh generation apparatus

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION:

The present invention provides methods, systems and apparatus to enableefficient correction of topological consistency of an inputthree-dimensional shape approximated in a spatial graph. In the presentinvention, a shape which is generated by connecting a plurality ofgenerally square or rectangular shapes (cubes or rectangular solids inthe case of three dimension) (shape connection operation) is referred toas a decomposable shape, the definition of which will be described indetail later. It is a necessary condition for a non-decomposable shapeto have an intersection of edges or faces, but having an intersection isnot a sufficient condition for being a non-decomposable shape. Inconsideration of this point, the prior-art methods [1] and [2] provide aconstraint of excluding intersections even when a recognition model isof a decomposable shape, and this may cause a problem that a generatedmesh is deformed too much. Furthermore, the above-mentioned strictconstraint condition is applied to all the calculations, and this maycause an inconvenience that predictability for output results to begenerated by calculation required for outputting a suitable andallowable recognition model is reduced.

That is, if a recognition model is determined to be of anon-decomposable shape only because it has any intersection, it is a toostrict condition for generation of a recognition model that is alwaysdecomposable. Among actual multidimensional shapes, there are shapes inwhich there is an intersection but it is allowable.

Some specific problems which may be caused in the prior-art recognitionmodel generation approaches will be now described below usingtwo-dimensional shapes with reference to figures. FIG. 18supplementarily describes the definition of a decomposable shape. Asshown in FIG. 18(a), there are prepared multiple rectangular shapesformed by four edges parallel to the i and j coordinate axes. First, tworectangular shapes among them are connected at an edge, and then, adifferent rectangular shape is further connected to the generated shapeat an edge. This operation is repeated. Through the operations, there isgradually generated a shape which is formed only by edges parallel tothe i and j coordinate axes and formed as a closed loop, as shown in(b), (c) and (d) in that order. The sequence of operations is referredto as a “shape connection operation” in the present invention. A shapegenerated through this shape connection operation is referred to as a“decomposable shape” in the present invention. When a direction is givento the closed loop, the left side along the progress in the direction isassumed to be the inside of the loop. In FIG. 18 (e), the inside areaalong the progress direction described above in the present invention isindicated by a symbol “X”. In the example shown in FIG. 18, the shapeconnection operation is repeated four times, and eventually, adecomposable shape (d) is generated.

In this case, any point included in any of the rectangular shapeelements exists inside the two-dimensional shape. The shape shown inFIG. 18 has an overlapped area Hd, and there are such internal pointsthat are included in multiple rectangular shapes at the same time. Suchshapes are found among a lot of shapes and are not special. At thecorner of the overlapped area as shown in FIG. 18, there exists anintersection of edges. The same direction as that specified for the loopis given to each edge forming the loop. The direction of edges can beclassified into four kinds: 1) the direction of i increasing; 2) thedirection of i decreasing; 3) the direction of j increasing; and 4) thedirection of j decreasing, which are identified as labels +I, −I, +J and−J, respectively.

For a decomposable shape, by repeating an operation of moving an edge inthe normal direction within such a range that the label of any edge doesnot change (that is, a range in which an +I edge does not change into an−I edge, for example), there is generated a two-dimensional shapeexhibiting a different geometry. This situation is shown in FIG. 19. InFIG. 19, FIG. 19(a) shows a decomposable shape, and FIG. 19(b) shows anon-decomposable shape. The sequence of operations shown in FIG. 19shows a geometric meaning of an operation referred to as a “shapecorrection operation”. In the present invention, the sequence ofoperations described in the particular embodiment shown in FIG. 19 isreferred to as a “shape deformation operation”. This shape correctionoperation graphically illustrates processes to be performed in a processfor solving an integer programming problem under a predeterminedobjective function and a predetermined constraint condition. Compared tothe shape shown in FIG. 19(a), the shape generated by the shapecorrection operation has the same number of edges and the label of eachedge is the same, but the coordinate values of the vertexes aredifferent as shown in FIG. 19(b). A specific inconvenience is that,among shapes generated by the shape correction operation, there is alsoprovided a shape that should never be generated by the shape correctionoperation. In the present invention, the shape is referred to as a“non-decomposable shape”.

Additional description will be given using FIG. 19. In the decomposableshape shown in FIG. 19(a), any point recognized to exist at a positionfacing toward the inside of the loop is always in on the inner side evenif the processing is moved along the loop. However, in thenon-decomposable shape shown in FIG. 19(b), which is provided by theshape correction operation as shown by the arrows I and E, the directionof an arrow I, which points at the inner side relative to the progressdirection, points at the outer side (I→E) as indicated by the brokenarrow in FIG. 19 when the processing follows the edge in the samedirection and reaches the lowest side loop, that is, reversal is caused.The same goes for the arrow E, and the arrow E is reversed (E→I) asindicated by a broken arrow. That is, the shape shown in FIG. 19(b)includes a loop where inner-side and outer-side marks specified by thevectors specified to be in the same direction are reversed. Thus, theshape is a shape which cannot be constructed even if the shapeconnection operation shown in FIG. 18 is repeated and which includestopological inconsistency for performing a processing of automaticallygenerating a structured mesh.

Although, the description has been given using a two-dimensional shape,the same is true for a three-dimensional shape. In this case, theoperation of connecting multiple rectangular solids is called a “shapeconnection operation”, and the sequence of operations for moving a faceconstituting the generated three-dimensional shape (decomposable shape)in the normal direction is called a “shape correction operation”. Then,in the three-dimensional shape to be generated by the shape correctionoperation, there exists a shape which cannot be newly generated by theshape connection operation (non-decomposable shape).

Therefore, it has been required to make it possible to efficientlycreate a recognition model and a structured mesh without unsuitablyeliminating intersections while certainly generating a recognitionmodel. It has also been required to detect a shape which cannot bedecomposed into rectangular solids, the shape being generated due to anoperation of moving a shape element of a decomposable shape, which isspecifically defined as an edge in the case of a two-dimensional shapeand as a face or an edge and a face in the case of a three-dimensionalshape, in the normal direction (shape correction operation).Furthermore, it is has been required to efficiently generate astructured mesh by identifying positions considered to benon-decomposable in the shape obtained by the shape correctionoperation. When performing correction, it has been required toefficiently generate a decomposable shape by applying the shapecorrection operation to data localized at the positions considered to benon-decomposable to perform shape correction rather than correcting theentire spatial graph.

Furthermore, it has been required to determine a recognition modelenabling generation of a structured mesh without inconsistency andgenerate a structured mesh for the recognition model, after applying ashape correction operation required for correcting the geometric shapeof a recognition model into a decomposable shape.

There are included multiple intersections in a shape generated by ashape correction operation. The shape cannot be decomposed due to someof the intersections. Conversely, the other intersections do not affectdecomposability. Therefore, such intersections that will not cause aproblem are sequentially deleted as pairs from the set of all theintersections, and the remaining intersection pairs are identified to beintersection pairs that are the cause of non-decomposability.

The shape is corrected by applying a shape correction operation in amanner that the intersections identified by the method are excluded, anda decomposable shape which is the most approximate to the original shapeis determined. This is achieved by dynamically taking in a constraintcondition for eliminating the identified intersection pair and solvingan integer programming problem with the approximation to the originalshape as an objective function.

A recognition model used for generation of a mesh has to be of adecomposable shape. Accordingly, after a decomposable recognition modelis determined by the above-mentioned means, the recognition model isdecomposed into mesh elements to generate a mesh.

More specifically, according to an example of the present invention,there is provided a topology determination apparatus for executing a“non-decomposable position identifying process” for a shape including atopological consistency problem as input to output data of causalintersection positions, in a first configuration of the presentinvention. The topology determination apparatus further detectsintersection positions causing non-decomposability (hereinafter referredto as “causal intersection positions” in the present invention) toidentify the intersection positions as intersection pairs generating thecausal intersection positions. The data of the causal intersection pairsis output data.

In a second configuration of the present invention, there is provided a“decomposable shape generation apparatus” for using the shape generatedby a shape correction operation and the data of causal intersectionpairs as input data to generate corrected shape data in which a causalintersection has been selectively eliminated and updating the shape databefore the processing with the corrected shape data. The decomposableshape generation apparatus refers to a causal intersection list todynamically change a constraint condition for a causal intersectionposition that causes non-decomposability. After that, the decomposableshape generation apparatus moves a shape element in the vicinity of thecausal intersection position being processed until the causalintersection position is completely eliminated, and outputs correctedshape data corresponding to a decomposable shape.

In a third configuration of the present invention, there is provided a“structured mesh generation apparatus” for generating a structured meshdecomposed into polyhedron unit elements with the corrected shape dataas input. The structured mesh generation apparatus of the presentinvention generates a mesh with unit elements for a recognition modelprovided by the corrected shape data and outputs structured mesh data.

That is, according to the present invention, there is also provided atopology determination apparatus for determining topological consistencyof shape data that provides a spatial graph of an input shape; theapparatus comprising:

-   -   a shape data storage device for storing the shape data;    -   means for reading the shape data from the shape data storage        device, calculating positions of intersections of shape        elements, generating pairs of the calculated intersection        positions to create a causal intersection list and storing the        causal intersection list in a memory;    -   means for selecting an intersection pair from the causal        intersection list and determining topological consistency of the        shape element between the selected pair of intersections;    -   means for registering the selected intersection pair as a causal        intersection pair, in response to the determination of the        topological consistency; and    -   means for causing the causal intersection pair to be identified        in the causal intersection list, in response to the        registration.

According to the present invention, the means for determiningtopological consistency can comprise means for listing the number ofintersections that exist in the shape element coupling the selected pairof intersections. According to the present invention, the means forcausing the causal intersection pair to be identified in the causalintersection list can comprise means for deleting intersection pairsother than the causal intersection pair from the causal intersectionlist or for inserting an identifier indicating that the causalintersection is a causal intersection pair. According to the presentinvention, the means for determining topological consistency cancomprise means for determining the selected intersection pair to be acausal intersection pair with the use of the parity of the number of theintersections.

According to the present invention, there is provided a decomposableshape generation apparatus for determining topological consistency ofshape data that provides a spatial graph of an input shape andcorrecting the shape data so that it can be decomposed; the apparatuscomprising:

-   -   a topology determination apparatus according to any of the above        descriptions;    -   a storage device for storing a constraint condition and an        objective function for an integer programming problem;    -   means for referring to a causal intersection list provided by        the topology determination apparatus to read a causal        intersection pair;    -   means for reading shape data from a shape data storage device to        specify a shape element that provides the causal intersection        pair;    -   shape correction means for reading the constraint condition for        eliminating the intersection of the causal intersection pair        from the storage device and numerically calculating the integer        programming problem to correct the shape data; and    -   means for updating the shape data including the causal        intersection pair with corrected shape data obtained as a result        of the numerical calculation and storing the updated shape data.

Furthermore, according to the present invention there is provided astructured mesh generation apparatus, comprising:

-   -   the decomposable shape generation apparatus according    -   to any of the above descriptions;    -   means for reading shape data including no causal intersection        pair, that is provided by the decomposable shape generation        apparatus, from a shape data storage device to generate        structured mesh data using a two-dimensional shape or a        polyhedron; and    -   means for storing the generated structured mesh data in a        storage device.

According to the present invention, there is also provided a method forcausing a computer to function as a topology determination apparatus fordetermining topological consistency of shape data that provides aspatial graph of an input shape; the method causing the computer toexecute steps of:

-   -   reading the shape data from a shape data storage device;    -   calculating intersection positions of shape elements of the read        shape data, generating pairs of the calculated intersection        positions to create a causal intersection list and storing the        causal intersection list in a memory;    -   selecting an intersection pair from the causal intersection list        and determining topological consistency of the shape element        between the selected pair of intersections;    -   means for registering the selected intersection pair as a causal        intersection pair, in response to the determination of the        topological consistency; and    -   means for causing the causal intersection pair to be identified        in the causal intersection list, in response to the        registration.

According to the present invention, the step of determining topologicalconsistency can comprise a step of listing the number of intersectionsthat exist in the shape element coupling the selected pair ofintersections and storing the list in a memory. According to the presentinvention, the step of causing the causal intersection pair to beidentified in the causal intersection list can execute a step ofdeleting intersection pairs other than the causal intersection pair fromthe causal intersection list or a step of inserting an identifierindicating that the causal intersection is a causal intersection pair.According to the present invention, the step of determining topologicalconsistency can comprise a step of determining the selected intersectionpair to be a causal intersection pair with the use of the parity of thenumber of the intersections.

According to the present invention, there is also provided a method forcausing a computer to determine topological consistency of shape datathat provides a spatial graph of an input shape to generate adecomposable shape; the method causing the computer to execute steps of:

-   -   reading the causal intersection list generated by the method        according to any of the above descriptions to determine a causal        intersection pair;    -   reading a constraint condition and an objective function for an        integer programming problem for eliminating causal intersection        pairs included in the causal intersection list from the storage        device;    -   reading shape data from a shape data storage device and        specifying shape elements that provide the causal intersection        pairs;    -   using the constraint condition and the objective function to        numerically calculate the integer programming problem and        correct the shape data; and    -   updating the shape data including the causal intersection pairs        with corrected shape data obtained as a result of the numerical        calculation and storing the updated shape data.

According to the present invention, there is also provided a method forcausing a computer to determine topological consistency of shape datathat provides a spatial graph of an input shape to generate structuredmesh data; the method causing the computer to execute steps of:

-   -   a step of reading shape data including no causal intersections,        that is provided by the method according to any of the above        descriptions from the shape data storage device;    -   generating structured mesh data using a two-dimensional shape or        a polyhedron, from the outer edge toward the inside of the read        shape data; and    -   storing the generated structured mesh data in a storage device.

According to the present invention, there is also provided acomputer-executable program for causing a computer to execute the methodaccording to any of the above descriptions.

According to the present invention, there is also provided a structuredmesh generation system for determining topological consistency of shapedata that provides a spatial graph of an input shape to generate astructured mesh, the structured mesh generation system comprising:

-   -   a topology determination apparatus for reading shape data from a        shape data storage device to determine topological consistency        and outputting data for resolving topological inconsistency;    -   a decomposable shape generation apparatus for reading the data        outputted by the topology determination apparatus, changing a        constraint condition of an integer programming problem solver,        and executing a shape correction process to output corrected        shape data; and    -   a structured mesh generation apparatus for reading the corrected        shape data to generate a structured mesh.

FIG. 1 is a flowchart showing a schematic process of a topologydetermination method to be executed in a topology determinationapparatus of the present invention. The topological condition to bedetermined in the present invention means topological consistency, whichis referred to in the expression, for example: “The direction, which wasrecognized to be headed toward the inside, has been headed toward theoutside when the process progresses from one end and reaches the otherend.” A topology determination method of the present invention will bedescribed using FIG. 1. At step S10, at least two-dimensional orthree-dimensional spatial-graph shape data is acquired from a shape datastorage device consisting of a hard disk, an EEPROM, or a flash memory.

The shape data to be read is data approximated to an inputtwo-dimensional or three-dimensional shape as a spatial graph defined bythe vertex coordinates, edges connecting vertexes, edges, faces and thelike of the input shape. The shape data includes vertex data, edge data,the loop direction, face data and the like, and is configured as dataenabling reproduction of the two-dimensional or three-dimensional shape.At step S12, a non-decomposable position identifying process is executedto identify a causal intersection position, specifically, anintersection pair that satisfies a condition for a causal intersection.The non-decomposable position identifying process in step S12 isexecuted with the use of identification values of two intersections andan edge row or a face row which couples the intersections in apredetermined direction as input data.

At step S14, a causal intersection list is created using the data of theidentified causal intersection pair, in a format which enables thecausal intersection pair to be identified in the causal intersectionlist including possible intersection pairs, and the causal intersectionlist is stored in a memory. The data included in the causal intersectionlist is referred to by a decomposable shape generation apparatus to bedescribed later and used for controlling reading of a shape correctionposition and a control condition.

Description will be made on the non-decomposable position identifyingprocess at step S12 to be executed by a computer in the topologydetermination method of the present invention. The processing functionincludes a processing function of identifying an intersection thatcauses non-decomposability from multiple intersections to identify acausal intersection pair providing the causal intersection. Forconvenience of description, input shape data is assumed to include anyzero (0) or more intersections. Such an intersection can be regarded asan intersection point at which edges cross in the case of twodimensions, and calculated as an intersection of a line segment and aface segment or of face segments in the case of a three-dimension shape.For facilitating essential understanding of the present invention,description will be made mainly using a two-dimensional shape. However,the same is true on the case of a three-dimensional shape, where therelation of edge to edge is replaced with the relation of edge segmentto face segment, and an edge row is handled as an edge row or a facesegment row.

FIG. 2 shows a detailed flowchart of the non-decomposable positionidentifying process of the present invention shown at step S12. In theprocess shown in FIG. 2, the above-mentioned intersection identificationvalues are acquired and stored in a memory to generate an intersectionlist at step S20. In a more specific embodiment, if there are nintersections, the intersection list can be generated, for example, as{V_(A), V_(B), . . . , V_(n-1), V_(n)}, where the intersectionidentification values are indicated as V_(A) to V_(n). At step S22, twopairs which can possibly cross are selected from the generatedintersection list, and the pairs are stored in a memory as {V_(A),V_(B)}, for example. At step S24, V_(A), for example, is selected as oneend, and shape elements such as edges and faces coupling intersectionpairs are listed. After that, an edge row which does not pass V_(A) andV_(B) on the way is retrieved with V_(B) as the other end, listed as anedge row E₀ and stored in a memory.

By decomposing the edge intersecting with E₀ at right angles at V_(A),and the edge intersecting E₀ at right angles at V_(B), a closed looprepresenting a shape into two edge rows to define a second edge row E₁.The second edge row E₁ is identified as (Va, Vb, E₁), for example, andregistered with a memory. FIG. 3 shows an embodiment of the edge row E₀and the edge row E₁ identified by the process described above.

At step S26, an intersection pattern of edges included in a generatededge row, for example, the edge row E₁ is determined. An intersectionpattern can be determined based on whether or not any two edges selectedfrom within the edge row E₁ include the same position coordinates. Itcan be also determined based on whether or not edges constituting theedge row E₁ are shape elements for the same intersection in theregistered intersection list. FIG. 4 graphically shows an embodiment ofan intersection pair that is not determined to be a causal intersectionpair in the determination at step S26. FIG. 4 also shows the position ofan area assumed to be the inside in a spatial graph.

In the present invention, in consideration of the direction of E₁ shownin FIG. 4, an intersection pattern which should not be immediatelyspecified as a causal intersection pair can be assumed to have: (1) aneven number of intersections of the edge rows if the inner side of theintersection pattern formed by E₀ and E₁ is the inner side of a shape tobe generated, as shown in FIG. 4(a); and (2) one (an odd number of)intersection if the outer side of the intersection pattern formed by E₀and E₁ is the inner side of a shape to be generated, as shown in FIG.4(b). In the present invention, it has been found that theabove-mentioned characteristic can be used for determination ofconsistency for inner/outer side determination in a spatial graph, andinclusiveness from the viewpoint of topology is determined bydetermining parity of the number of intersections of edge rows or facerows specified between a pair of intersections. By adopting thistopology determination criterion, it is possible to eliminate anintersection when inconvenience occurs rather than eliminating all theintersections at a time.

FIG. 5 shows another embodiment wherein causal intersection pairs areprovided in the present invention. The shape in FIG. 5 is shown to havetwelve intersections indicated by V₀, . . . , V₁₁. Pairs other thancausal intersection pairs, which are deletable from a list in thenon-decomposable position identifying process, are {V₀, V₁}, {V₀, V₇},{V₀, V₁₀}, {V₁, V₂}, {V₁, V₁₁}, {V₂, V₇}, {V₃, V₅}, {V₄, V₆}, {V₄, V₁₀},{V₆, V₁₁}, and {V₁₀, V₁₁}. As for the intersections V₈ and V₉ shown inFIG. 5, the edge row starting from the V₈ loops back to the initialintersection, and therefore, either of the intersections V₈ and V₉cannot be a pair with any of the intersections. As a result, an edge rowor a face segment row cannot be defined, and intersection pairsincluding the intersections V₈ and V₉ are outputted as causalintersection pairs by the processing of the present invention in thenon-decomposable position identifying process. Furthermore, in thepresent invention, it is also possible to extract common intersectionsfrom these pairs, put the causal intersection pairs together, andeventually leave it as a pair of {V₈, V₉} in the causal intersectionlist.

There are listed up conditions for an intersection pair to be identifiedas a causal intersection pair in the present invention in Table 1. Thislist can be stored in a suitable storage area in a computer used in thepresent invention. TABLE 1 Inside/outside Number of Inside/outside inspatial intersections of of E0, E1 graph shape Inside Inside Odd numberOutside Inside Even number N/A — —

Returning to FIG. 2 again, description will be made on a causalintersection position identifying process of the present invention. Atthe determination of an intersection pattern of an intersectionperformed at step S26, if it is determined that the intersection pairbeing processed is not a causal intersection (NO), then the processproceeds to step S28 and deletes the intersection pair being processedat that point of time from the causal intersection list. After thedeletion, such intersection pairs that include the intersectiondetermined at that point of time, for example V_(A) or V_(B) are alsodeleted from the causal intersection list. At step S30, it is thendetermined whether or not determination has been performed for all theregistered intersection pairs, with the use of the number of deletedintersection pairs and the number of intersection pairs left in thecausal intersection list, for example. If it is determined that theprocessing has been finished for all the intersection pairs (YES) at thedetermination at step S30, then the causal intersection list includingonly causal intersection pairs is stored in a memory at step S32, andthe process ends. At step S30, if determination has not been completedfor all the intersection pairs (NO), then the next intersection pair isread from the list at step S34, and the process returns to step S24. Theprocess repeats until determination has been completed for all theintersection pairs.

If it is determined that the intersection pair being processed isdetermined to be a causal intersection (YES) at the determinationperformed at step S26, then processing shown by a broken line isexecuted to return the process to step S30, so that the process can beexecuted until all the causal intersection pairs are identified. In thiscase, when the process ends, there are left only causal intersectionpairs in the causal intersection list. In another aspect of the presentinvention, when it is determined that the intersection pair beingprocessed is a causal intersection pair (YES) at step S26, the processproceeds to step S38, where a processing for identifying theintersection pair being processed may be processed. For example, anidentifier may be inserted before the causal intersection pair as {R,V_(C), V_(D)} so that it can be referred to in the succeeding processes.Furthermore, in another embodiment of the present invention, by settingan indication of a meaningful intersection, for example, an “undeletableflag” such as a letter “N”, a meaningful intersection can be identifiedas {N, V_(A), V_(B)}, instead of deleting a causal intersection pair atstep S28.

FIG. 6 graphically shows the causal intersection position identifyingprocess of the present invention as it is applied to an actual shape.The shape data shown in FIG. 6 has four intersections V_(A), V_(B),V_(C) and V_(D). In the present invention, all these intersections arelisted and stored in a memory as a causal intersection list of [{V_(A),V_(B)}, {V_(A), V_(C)}, {V_(A), V_(D)}, {V_(B), V_(C)}, {V_(B), V_(D)},{V_(C), V_(D)}]. The pair {V_(A), V_(B)} is determined not to be acausal intersection and identified as deletable from the intersectionlist by the causal intersection position identifying process describedabove. The process then proceeds to determination for the remainingpairs and sequentially determines whether to delete {V_(A), V_(C)},{V_(A), V_(D)}, {V_(B), V_(C)}, {V_(B), V_(D)}, and {V_(C), V_(D)} inthat order. In the embodiment shown in FIG. 6, the process of thepresent invention determines the last pair {V_(C), V_(D)} to be a causalintersection pair, and therefore generates a causal intersection list,for example, as {V_(C), V_(D)} or [{V_(A), V_(B)}, {V_(A), V_(C)},{V_(A), V_(D)}, {V_(B), V_(C)}, {V_(B), V_(D)}, {R, V_(C), V_(D)}] tostore the list in a memory.

FIG. 7 shows an embodiment wherein the topology determination method ofthe present invention is applied to a three-dimensional shape. In thecase of the three-dimensional shape shown in FIG. 7, a line segmentgenerated by intersection of faces is processed as an intersection.Specifically, dimensionally extending the determination on whether edgesshare the same position coordinates in the case of two dimensions,determination for an intersection is performed based on whether or notone face or edge shares position coordinates with another face, and anintersection list is then generated and stored in a memory. A causalintersection list is generated by listing all loops that are composed ofonly intersections, and the list is stored in a memory. One loop is thenselected from the causal intersection list and represented by F₀. Bydividing the face, which intersects with F₀ at right angles at theborder of F₀, with the line of intersection, the shell representing theshape can be divided into two open polygon groups. One of the polygongroups is represented by F₁.

FIG. 8 shows intersection patterns for F₀ and F₁. FIGS. 8(a) and 8(b)show intersection patterns for which the direction (sides) of F₁ istaken into consideration. In either case of FIG. 8, if F₁ includes aneven number of intersections which do not form a closed loop, then theintersections constituting F₀ are deleted from the list. After thedeletion, if another loop includes an intersection constituting F₁, thenthe face loop is also deleted from the list. The operation of selectinganother face loop and deleting it if it is deletable is repeated. Whenthere is no deletable pair in the list, then this iteration operationends. The intersection pairs included in a face loop, which remain onthe list at this stage, are identified as causal intersection positions.

FIG. 9 shows a schematic flowchart of a process executed by thedecomposable shape generation apparatus of the present invention. In thedecomposable shape generation process shown in FIG. 9, shape data isacquired from a storage section at step S40. At step S42, data is readfrom a causal intersection list and it is determined whether or not anycausal intersection exists (causal intersection list==null). As a resultof the determination at step S42, if there is no causal intersectionpair (YES), it means that there is no causal intersection position inthe shape data to be processed at the point of time. Accordingly, theprocess ends and waits for the next appropriate command. At thedetermination at step S42, if it is determined there is a causalintersection, then the process proceeds to step S44, where a shapecorrection process is executed.

The shape correction process performed at step S44 will be describedbelow. Irrespective of whether or not there is included any causalintersection pair, the function of the shape correction process assumesshape data providing a spatial graph as input, and realizes a functionof automatically deforming the input shape so that any causalintersection position can be eliminated therefrom. The shape correctionprocess overwrites the shape data immediately before execution of theprocess with corrected shape data providing a decomposable shape toprovide updated and corrected shape data. The shape correction processof the present invention iterates while calling the above-mentionednon-decomposable position identifying process, until there is found nocausal intersection position in the list finally, as described later.

The methods described in the specification of Japanese PatentApplication No. 2002-178068 assigned to the same assignee [1] and in“Recognition Model Construction Approach without Self Interference forGeneration of Hexahedral Mesh” by Yamada, Yoshizawa, Inoue and Doi;Collected Lecture Draft Papers for 2002 Annual Meeting of The JapanSociety for Industrial and Applied Mathematics; September, 2002 [2] canbe used for essential processing of the shape correction processperformed at step S44. To describe this schematically, the shapecorrection process assumes a condition of eliminating intersectionpositions as a constraint condition and executes a process fordetermining a solution for minimizing an objective function, which hasbeen constructed with the use of a predetermined index, by using aninteger programming problem. In the method disclosed in theabove-mentioned patent application, all the positions where anintersection is generated are listed and an integer programming problemis solved with the condition that all the intersections should beeliminated as a constraint condition. By contrast, the present inventionis different from the method in that a constraint condition that acausal intersection pair should be selectively eliminated isincorporated in response to detection of a causal intersection pair toexecute the process, without applying the constraint condition ofelimination to an intersection which is not a causal intersection.

An objective function to be used in the present invention may be anobjective function that minimizes the sum of changes in length of edges,similarly to the specification of Published Unexamined PatentApplication No. 2002-178068, for example. A constraint condition for thepurpose of preventing label reversal is constructed. In the presentinvention, label reversal is assumed to mean that the direction of anedge in a loop is reversed due to the shape correction process. Whenlabel reversal is caused, there may be caused an inconvenience that thetopology of a reproduced three-dimensional shape is reversed due to thereversed label. In FIG. 10, an example of label reversal is describedwith the use of an actual shape. FIG. 10(a) shows a shape generated fromshape data before execution of the shape correction process, and FIG.10(b) shows an embodiment of the shape correction process which causeslabel reversal.

Referring to FIGS. 10(a) and 10(b), it is shown that the direction of aridgeline indicated by the symbol “C” in a loop is reversed betweenFIGS. 10(a) and 10(b). In the present invention, it is not necessary touse a shape correction process which takes label reversal intoconsideration in the case of handling an input shape which never causesthe above-mentioned label reversal. However, in order to handle a morecommon general-purpose input shape in the present invention, it isdesirable to perform shape correction which restricts label reversal. Ifthe constraint condition for preventing label reversal is illustrativelydescribed using a condition for preventing reversal of the +I label edgestarting at V₀ [i₀, j₀] and ending at V₀ [i₁, j₀] in the case of atwo-dimensional shape, for example, it can be simply described as i₀<i₁.The above-mentioned constraint condition for preventing label reversalcan be introduced as a constraint condition applicable to all thevertexes and edges.

The shape correction process of the present invention will be describedin more detail with reference to FIG. 11. At step S52, a causalintersection pair is read from a causal intersection list stored byperforming at least a causal intersection process. At step S54, aconstraint condition for eliminating the corresponding causalintersection pair is introduced. To explain a specific embodiment of theconstraint condition, elimination of a causal intersection pair can beperformed by incorporating a conditional expression, in which acondition for preventing the +I label edge starting at V₀[i₀, j₀] andending at V₁ [i₁, j₀] (i₀<i₁) and the +J label edge starting at V_(A)[i_(A), j_(A)] and ending at V_(B) [i_(A), i_(B)] (i_(A)<j_(B)) fromintersecting with each other is set as a constraint condition, into aprocessing routine. Specifically, the condition a given by theexpression below is an example of a constraint condition.i₀-i_(A)>0, or i_(A)-i₁>0, or j_(A)-j₀>0, or j₀-j_(B)>0   [Expression 1]

In the case of a three-dimensional causal intersection, any equivalentcondition for eliminating intersection of a line segment and a facesegment can be used similarly.

The process then proceeds to step S56, where an integer programmingproblem is calculated, which is represented by a constructed objectivefunction and a constraint condition to generate shape data in which thecausal intersection being processed at that point of time has beeneliminated. After that, at step S58, the shape correction process of thepresent invention overwrites and updates the shape data in a shape datastorage section with shape data in which at least targeted causalintersection has been eliminated. The process then passes the shape datato step S46 of the decomposable shape generation process in FIG. 9 andexecutes a processing for causing the causal intersection identifyingprocess to be repeated again.

With reference to FIG. 9 again, description will be made on theiteration from steps S44 to S48 of the decomposable shape generationprocess of the present invention. Using the corrected shape dataprovided by the shape correction process at step S44, the causalintersection identifying process is executed again. At the same time, ifthere is any other excluded causal intersection, the intersection paircorresponding thereto is also deleted from the causal intersection list.If a new intersection pair is registered as a causal intersection pair,or if there is found any remaining causal intersection pair (NO), thenthe decomposable shape generation process of the present inventionreturns to step S44 and executes the shape correction process. Afterthat, at step S46, the non-decomposable position identifying process iscalled and it is checked whether or not the intersection is a causalintersection. This is repeated until the causal intersection list isempty, and the shape correction process and the causal intersectionposition identifying process are repeatedly executed. At step S48, ifthe causal intersection list is empty (YES), then the process proceedsto step S50, where corrected shape data without a causal intersectionposition is outputted eventually, and data in the shape data storagedevice is updated.

FIG. 12 shows an embodiment of a decomposable shape generated from anon-decomposable shape by the decomposable shape generation process ofthe present invention. FIG. 12(a) shows an embodiment of anon-decomposable shape having a causal intersection pair {V_(C), V_(D)}.FIG. 12(b) shows an embodiment wherein the causal intersection pair{V_(C), V_(D)} causing a causal intersection has been eliminated byincorporating a constraint condition to change the position coordinatesof the vertexes of the edge L, which are surrounded by a circle. In thepresent invention, the process for incorporating the constraintcondition can be read as an external function, branched as a subroutine,or implemented as a process for passing data to an object describedtherefor, in response to detection of a causal intersection pair.

As apparent from the embodiment shown in FIG. 12, a process foridentifying causal intersection positions is adopted in the presentinvention, so that shape correction can be performed only usingparameters for at least several edges forming causal intersections.Accordingly, processing time required for a processor to perform thedecomposable shape generation process can be significantly reduced, andburden on computer resources and on a user can be reduced. Furthermore,since significant shape change is not caused, it is possible to providescalability, which means job completion predictability in computing.

FIG. 13 shows a schematic flowchart of a structured mesh generationprocess of the present invention. In the structured mesh generationprocess of the present invention, shape data is read from the storagesection and stored in an appropriate storage area at step S60. Since theshape data read at this stage does not have any causal intersection, theprocess immediately proceeds to step S62, where a process for generatinga quadrangle or hexahedral mesh is executed. Though various methods canbe used for mesh generation performed at step S62, a structured mesh canbe generated with the advancing front method in a particular embodimentof the present invention. In the advancing front method, mesh elementsare sequentially created in layers from the border of a recognitionmodel, which is a projection of shape data into an actual space, towardthe inside.

In this case, various shapes can be used for creation of a structuredmesh, and a unit square, a rectangle and a polygon can be used in thecase of two-dimensional representation, and any shape, such as a unitcube, a unit rectangular solid and a polyhedron, can be used as requiredin the case of three-dimensional representation. Especially, in thepresent invention, it is preferable to use a unit square or a regularhexahedron though it is not intended to exclude other shapes. Thestructured mesh generation process at step S62 is stopped when all theinside has been filled with unit shapes. At step S64, structured meshdata is outputted to a storage device such as a hard disk, and theprocess ends.

FIG. 14 shows an embodiment of a structured mesh generated with theadvancing front method in accordance with the present invention. FIG.14(a) shows an embodiment immediately after generation of a mesh isstarted. FIG. 14(b) shows an embodiment when generation of a mesh hasbeen completed. As shown in FIG. 14(a), overlap of edges of arecognition model is caused at a part where three-dimensional shapes areoverlapped with each other in many cases. In the present invention, ifthere is any causable intersection to be excluded, the inside andoutside in mesh generation cannot be determined in such an overlappedarea, and therefore a normal structured mesh cannot be generated.However, it is possible to certainly determine the inside and outside ofan edge by excluding the causal intersection in accordance with thepresent invention, and, therefore, it is possible to generate adesirable structured mesh as shown in FIG. 14(b). In FIG. 14(b), thearea Hd hatched with a high density is an area where a mesh has beendoubly generated correspondently to overlapped edges. FIG. 14(c)visually more clearly shows an embodiment of an input shape used for themesh generation process from which FIGS. 14(a) and 14(b) have beenobtained.

FIG. 15 is a functional block diagram of a structured mesh generationsystem of the present invention. The structured mesh generation systemof the present invention shown in FIG. 15 comprises: a shape datastorage section 10 for storing shape data generated with vertexes, edgesand the like from an input three-dimensional shape; a computer 12 and adisplay device 14 for visually monitoring a generated structured mesh.In a particular embodiment of the present invention, the shape datastorage section 10 is configured as a rewritable storage medium such asa hard disk, a flash memory and an EEPROM. In the shape data storagesection 10, there is stored shape data obtained by dividing an inputthree-dimensional shape generated with a CAD, for example, intovertexes, edges and faces.

The computer 12 is configured as a personal computer, a workstation or ageneral-purpose computer. The computer 12 is generally configured toinclude a CPU (central processing unit) 16, a memory 18 such as a randomaccess memory (RAM) and a dynamic random access memory (DRAM), aninput/output control section 20 for controlling driving of variousexternal devices such as a hard disk, a flash memory, an EEPROM and adisplay device. The CPU 16, the memory 18 and the input/output controlsection 20 of the computer 12 are mutually connected via an internal bus22 for performing data communication at an appropriate speed.Furthermore, the computer 12 of the present invention may be configuredto include a network interface controller (NIC) 24 and connected toother computers via a network 26 to enable processing such as so-calledgrid computing.

The computer 12 of the present invention comprises various devicefunctions for reading a computer-executable program stored in a storagedevice 28, such as a hard disk, CD-ROM, MO, flash memory and EEPROM, toexecute a structured mesh generation method of the present invention.The computer 12 is also configured to receive input from a user via aninput device 30 such as a keyboard.

FIG. 16 shows the various device functions configured by the computer 12of the present invention, together with other device functions. Thoughthe storage device 28 is shown as a separate function block differentfrom the shape data storage section 10 in FIG. 16, it may be identicalwith shape data storage section 10. The device functions generallyconfigured by the computer 12 as software are a topology determinationapparatus 32, a decomposable shape generation apparatus 34, and astructured mesh generation apparatus 36.

The topology determination apparatus 32 reads shape data from the shapedata storage section 10, executes the causal intersection identifyingprocess and stores a causal intersection list listing intersection pairswhich damage topological consistency in the memory 18. The decomposableshape generation apparatus 34 is configured to include a listdetermination section 34 a for reading shape data from the shape datastorage section 10 and a causal intersection list from the memory 18 todetermine a causal intersection position and an integer problem solver34 b for executing the shape correction process in response to thedetermination of the list determination section 34 a. When valuesindicating a causal intersection position are detected by the listdetermination section 34 a, the decomposable shape generation apparatus34 reads an appropriate constraint condition from an appropriate storagearea, for example, from an internal memory of the CPU for the integerproblem solver 34 b. The integer problem solver 34 b is then applied toa set of limited vertexes and edges forming the identified causalintersection to calculate an integer programming problem under apredetermined objective function and overwrites corrected shape data, inwhich the causal intersection has been eliminated, onto the shape datastorage section 10 to update the shape data.

In a particular embodiment of the present invention, the structured meshgeneration apparatus 36 is configured with software for executing theadvancing front method. The structured mesh generation block 36 readsthe shape data in which the causal intersection has been eliminated,creates a mesh structure with the advancing front method, completescreation of the mesh when the inside of the shape data is filled withthe mesh, and then stores the mesh in the storage device 28 as an outputresult.

The generated structured mesh data is sent to a display device 14 to bepresented to a user as a three-dimensional shape which has been providedwith a structured mesh. The user can also provide the generatedstructured mesh data as input data for software included in thestructured mesh generation system as other functions or softwareenabling stress analysis, fluid mechanics and surface rendering with theuse of the finite element method to be performed by another computerthrough grid computing via the network 26.

Each process and each function block of the present invention areconfigured as function block means in which a computer-readable programis read by the CPU and functioned by a computer, or as an independentapparatus. The above-described function blocks are not limited to theconfiguration shown in the figures but can be implemented in a computerin any configuration only if the function of the present invention isachieved as a whole. A computer-executable program for configuring eachof the above-mentioned functions in the present invention can be writtenin various programming languages. Though any known programming languagecan be used as the programming language, specifically, FORTRAN, C, C++and Java® can be used in a preferable embodiment of the presentinvention.

Though the present invention has been described with the use of theparticular embodiments shown in the figures, it is not limited to theembodiments shown in the figures. By referring to the embodiments of thepresent invention shown in the figures, one skilled in the art caneasily make various changes, perform exclusion and realize alternativeembodiments for the details, components, detailed elements of theembodiments.

As described above, according to the present invention, even when thereis included an overlapped part in a shape of a recognition model, it ispossible to generate a mesh without performing deformation to excludeall the overlaps, unlike the prior-art methods. By using the presentinvention, it is possible to generate a mesh with topologicalconsistency, with appropriate scalability even for an inputthree-dimensional shape having complicatedly overlapped parts.

Variations described for the present invention can be realized in anycombination desirable for each particular application. Thus particularlimitations, and/or embodiment enhancements described herein, which mayhave particular advantages to a particular application need not be usedfor all applications. Also, not all limitations need be implemented inmethods, systems and/or apparatus including one or more concepts of thepresent invention.

The present invention can be realized in hardware, software, or acombination of hardware and software. A visualization tool according tothe present invention can be realized in a centralized fashion in onecomputer system, or in a distributed fashion where different elementsare spread across several interconnected computer systems. Any kind ofcomputer system—or other apparatus adapted for carrying out the methodsand/or functions described herein—is suitable. A typical combination ofhardware and software could be a general purpose computer system with acomputer program that, when being loaded and executed, controls thecomputer system such that it carries out the methods described herein.The present invention can also be embedded in a computer programproduct, which comprises all the features enabling the implementation ofthe methods described herein, and which—when loaded in a computersystem—is able to carry out these methods.

Computer program means or computer program in the present contextinclude any expression, in any language, code or notation, of a set ofinstructions intended to cause a system having an information processingcapability to perform a particular function either directly or afterconversion to another language, code or notation, and/or reproduction ina different material form.

Thus the invention includes an article of manufacture which comprises acomputer usable medium having computer readable program code meansembodied therein for causing a function described above. The computerreadable program code means in the article of manufacture comprisescomputer readable program code means for causing a computer to effectthe steps of a method of this invention. Similarly, the presentinvention may be implemented as a computer program product comprising acomputer usable medium having computer readable program code meansembodied therein for causing a a function described above. The computerreadable program code means in the computer program product comprisingcomputer readable program code means for causing a computer to effectone or more functions of this invention. Furthermore, the presentinvention may be implemented as a program storage device readable bymachine, tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by themachine to perform method steps for causing one or more functions ofthis invention.

It is noted that the foregoing has outlined some of the more pertinentobjects and embodiments of the present invention. This invention may beused for many applications. Thus, although the description is made forparticular arrangements and methods, the intent and concept of theinvention is suitable and applicable to other arrangements andapplications. It will be clear to those skilled in the art thatmodifications to the disclosed embodiments can be effected withoutdeparting from the spirit and scope of the invention. The describedembodiments ought to be construed to be merely illustrative of some ofthe more prominent features and applications of the invention. Otherbeneficial results can be realized by applying the disclosed inventionin a different manner or modifying the invention in ways known to thosefamiliar with the art.

1) A topology determination apparatus for determining topologicalconsistency of shape data that provides a spatial graph of an inputshape, the apparatus comprising: a shape data storage device for storingthe shape data; means for reading the shape data from the shape datastorage device, calculating positions of intersections of shapeelements, generating pairs of the calculated intersection positions tocreate a causal intersection list and storing the causal intersectionlist in a memory; means for selecting an intersection pair from thecausal intersection list and determining topological consistency of theshape element between the selected pair of intersections; means forregistering the selected intersection pair as a causal intersectionpair, in response to the determination of the topological consistency;and means for causing the causal intersection pair to be identified inthe causal intersection list, in response to the registration. 2) Atopology determination apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the meansfor determining topological consistency comprises means for listing thenumber of intersections that exist in the shape element coupling theselected pair of intersections. 3) A topology determination apparatusaccording to claim 1, wherein the means for causing the causalintersection pair to be identified in the causal intersection listcomprises means for deleting intersection pairs other than the causalintersection pair from the causal intersection list or for inserting anidentifier indicating that the causal intersection is a causalintersection pair. 4) A topology determination apparatus according toclaim 1, wherein the means for determining topological consistencycomprises means for determining the selected intersection pair to be acausal intersection pair with the use of the parity of the number of theintersections. 5) A decomposable shape generation apparatus fordetermining topological consistency of shape data that provides aspatial graph of an input shape and correcting the shape data so that itcan be decomposed, the apparatus comprising: the topology determinationapparatus according to claim 1; a storage device for storing aconstraint condition and an objective function for an integerprogramming problem; means for referring to a causal intersection listprovided by the topology determination apparatus to a read causalintersection pair; means for reading shape data from a shape datastorage device to specify a shape element that provides the causalintersection pair; shape correction means for reading the constraintcondition for eliminating the intersection of the causal intersectionpair from the storage device and numerically calculating the integerprogramming problem to correct the shape data; and means for updatingthe shape data including the causal intersection pair with correctedshape data obtained as a result of the numerical calculation and storingthe updated shape data. 6) The decomposable shape generation apparatusaccording to claim 5, wherein the shape correction means comprises meansfor determining an unprocessed causal intersection pair in the causalintersection list and means for reading updated shape data in responseto the determination until there is no unprocessed causal intersectionpair. 7) The decomposable shape generation apparatus according to claim5, wherein the shape element is at least one of: a face; and an edgethereof. 8) The decomposable shape generation apparatus according toclaim 5, wherein the shape correction means reads the constraintcondition for correcting the position of the shape element constitutingthe specified causal intersection pair from the storage device. 9) Astructured mesh generation apparatus, comprising: the decomposable shapegeneration apparatus according to claim 5; means for reading shape dataincluding no causal intersection pair, that is provided by thedecomposable shape generation apparatus, from a shape data storagedevice to generate structured mesh data using a two-dimensional shapesor a polyhedron; and means for storing the generated structured meshdata in a storage device. 10) The structured mesh generation apparatusaccording to claim 9, wherein the means for generating structured meshdata comprises means for generating mesh data from the outer edge towardthe inside of the shape data. 11) A method for causing a computer tofunction as a topology determination apparatus for determiningtopological consistency of shape data that provides a spatial graph ofan input shape, the method causing the computer to execute steps of:reading the shape data from a shape data storage device; calculatingintersection positions of shape elements of the read shape data,generating pairs of the calculated intersection positions to create acausal intersection list and storing the causal intersection list in amemory; selecting an intersection pair from the causal intersection listand determining topological consistency of the shape element between theselected pair of intersections; means for registering the selectedintersection pair as a causal intersection pair, in response to thedetermination of the topological consistency; and means for causing thecausal intersection pair to be identified in the causal intersectionlist, in response to the registration. 12) The method according to claim11, wherein the step of determining topological consistency comprises astep of listing the number of intersections that exist in the shapeelement coupling the selected pair of intersections and storing the listin a memory. 13) The method according to claim 11, wherein the step ofcausing the causal intersection pair to be identified in the causalintersection list executes a step of deleting intersection pairs otherthan the causal intersection pair from the causal intersection list or astep of inserting an identifier indicating that the causal intersectionis a causal intersections pair. 14) The method according to claim 11,wherein the step of determining topological consistency comprises a stepof determining the selected intersection pair to be a causalintersection pair with the use of the parity of the number of theintersections. 15) A method for causing a computer to determinetopological consistency of shape data that provides a spatial graph ofan input shape to generate a decomposable shape, the method causing thecomputer to execute steps of: reading the causal intersection listgenerated by the method according to claim 11 to determine a causalintersection pair; reading a constraint condition and an objectivefunction for an integer programming problem for eliminating the causalintersection pair included in the causal intersection list from thestorage device; reading shape data from a shape data storage device tospecify a shape element that provides the causal intersection pair;using the constraint condition and the objective function to numericallycalculate the integer programming problem and correct the shape data;and updating the shape data including the causal intersection pair withcorrected shape data obtained as a result of the numerical calculationand storing the updated shape data. 16) The method according to claim15, wherein the shape correction step comprises a step of determining anunprocessed causal intersection pair in the causal intersection list anda step of reading updated shape data in response to the determinationuntil there is no unprocessed causal intersection pair. 17) The methodaccording to claim 15, wherein the shape correction step reads theconstraint condition for correcting the position of the shape elementconstituting the specified causal intersection pair from the storagedevice. 18) A method for causing a computer to determine topologicalconsistency of shape data that provides a spatial graph of an inputshape to generate structured mesh data, the method causing the computerto execute steps of: a step of reading shape data including no causalintersection pair, that is provided by the method according to claim 15from the shape data storage device; generating structured mesh datausing a two-dimensional shape or a polyhedron, from the outer edgetoward the inside of the read shape data; and storing the generatedstructured mesh data in a storage device. 19) A computer-executableprogram for causing a computer to execute the method according to claim11. 20) A computer-executable program for causing a computer to executethe method according to claim
 15. 21) A computer-executable program forcausing a computer to execute the method according to claim
 18. 22) Astructured mesh generation system for determining topologicalconsistency of shape data that provides a spatial graph of an inputshape to generate a structured mesh, the structured mesh generationsystem comprising: a topology determination apparatus for reading shapedata from a shape data storage device to determine topologicalconsistency and outputting data for resolving topological inconsistency;a decomposable shape generation apparatus for reading the data outputtedby the topology determination apparatus, changing a constraint conditionof an integer programming problem solver, and executing a shapecorrection process to output corrected shape data; and a structured meshgeneration apparatus for reading the corrected shape data to generate astructured mesh. 23) An article of manufacture comprising a computerusable medium having computer readable program code means embodiedtherein for causing a computer to function as a topology determinationapparatus for determining topological consistency of shape data thatprovides a spatial graph of an input shape, the computer readableprogram code means in said article of manufacture comprising computerreadable program code means for causing a computer to effect the stepsof claim
 11. 24) A program storage device readable by machine, tangiblyembodying a program of instructions executable by the machine to performmethod steps for causing a computer to function as a topologydetermination apparatus for determining topological consistency of shapedata that provides a spatial graph of an input shape, said method stepscomprising the steps of claim
 11. 25) A computer program productcomprising a computer usable medium having computer readable programcode means embodied therein for causing determination of topologicalconsistency of shape data that provides a spatial graph of an inputshape, the computer readable program code means in said computer programproduct comprising computer readable program code means for causing acomputer to effect the functions of claim
 1. 26) A computer programproduct comprising a computer usable medium having computer readableprogram code means embodied therein for causing determination oftopological consistency of shape data that provides a spatial graph ofan input shape to generate a structured mesh, the computer readableprogram code means in said computer program product comprising computerreadable program code means for causing a computer to effect thefunctions of: a topology determination apparatus for reading shape datafrom a shape data storage device to determine topological consistencyand outputting data for resolving topological inconsistency; adecomposable shape generation apparatus for reading the data outputtedby the topology determination apparatus, changing a constraint conditionof an integer programming problem solver, and executing a shapecorrection process to output corrected shape data; and a structured meshgeneration apparatus for reading the corrected shape data to generate astructured mesh.